MILLER, WASHINGTON D.

MILLER, WASHINGTON D. (1814–1866). Washington D. Miller, early legislator and editor, was born on December 4, 1814, in Charleston, South Carolina. He graduated from the University of Alabama in January 1836 with a major in engineering, then moved to Texas in 1837 and settled in Gonzales to practice law. He represented the county in the Congress of the Republic of Texas from November 1840 to February 1841. In 1841 he became Sam Houston's private secretary in Austin. In March 1842 he participated in repelling the invasion of Rafael Vásquez. That year he was named postmaster general by Houston. Miller was secretary of the Senate in the Seventh Congress. He and William H. Cushney for a short time edited and published the National Register at Washington-on-the-Brazos. In 1845 Miller returned to Austin, where he served as secretary of state under Governor George T. Wood from 1848 to 1850. After Wood was voted out, Miller, again in partnership with Cushney, edited and published the Austin Texas Democrat. He was secretary of the Senate during the Fourth Legislature (1851–53). In 1861 he moved to Galveston, where he died on September 19, 1866.

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